Passport photos - anyone else admitting to extreme measures?

[queenbrunhilda]

Very stupidly have managed to align passport renewal date with the run-up to a major birthday. Was feeling OK about the birthday until I breezed into a Photo Me booth at the weekend. It spat out a set of images that made me look like Madge Allsop, Dame Edna's former bridesmaid.

Bit of a shocker and not really something to put anyone in a holiday mood. So today, in search of better set, I have visited a high street photographers twice, they were closed both times, and three supermarkets, one with an out of order booth, and one with a booth which I thought had produced a marginally better result until I got home and noticed hair in my eyes. In a final bid for a more flattering result I returned to the original supermarket with a cardboard box covered in tin foil which I held under my face. It works! The results are much improved (but wish I hadn't done this where we do the weekly shop as the security and welcome desk staff clearly think I'm nuts).

Hoping it's not just me...?

I'm so using that tip. Has anyone got any more?

I have to get a new photo for my driving licence and I am soooo using that idea!

Lots of 'natural' make up and 'smeyesing' into the camera a la Tyra Banks.

Your tip is unbeatable though, surely?

No. My top tip is to drive to the other side of town where you won't be recognised.

Ffs, I literally just got a new passport! Totally would've used that tinfoil idea. I noticed that the photo looks v blurry once on the passport and the colours a bit faded- go for a darker lipstick and define your eyebrows a smidgen more than you usually would and it'll come out grand.

Awesome tip!

I actually look better on my passport photo than I do in real life, it was just before my holidays and I was fake tanned, fake eyelashed and bleached hair beyond all recognition. I'm fat and grey now I've had a child, so I love my passport

I wish I'd done this! I tried 3 times with my photos before the PO finally accepted them a few weeks ago! Hair on my face (i have a fringe FGS!), hair over my EARS!?, My final passport is dismal but at least these days the image is embedded in the page and pretty faint compared to having your actual photo stuck in! And at least it's only passport control staff that see it! They better be prepared for me to look nothing like my photo when I go on hols though!

Oh wow, this is so the thread I need to be on!

I am such a stunner, but that very rarely comes across on photographs, never mind photo-booth quickies

What on earth is 'smeyesing'?

I took my two gorgeous girls for photos in the Photo-Me booth the other day. The resulting pictures were absolutely awful! Grey faces...flat with no dimensions...big dark rings under their eyes and (oddly) necks. They are 14 & 11 yrs old! Honestly, my girls are fresh faced & pretty...was so glad I didn't need mine doing & I will not be going to a booth when I do!

Boring tip: use paspic.com, you can upload your own photos off phone or tablet (make sure you use a white background, don't smile etc) and they will check, print and post to you. Easy peasy especially for babies.

Passport photo was rejected a couple of weeks ago for having a white background. HAs to be grey.

I have used paspic the last couple of times too. take the photo against a light background, upload to paspic website and they will post you back passport compliant photos in a couple of days. (complete with grey background)

Oh dear! I had mine taken professionally. Resulting pics looked like one of the Two Fat Ladies, so I was pinning my hopes on a photo booth. Tin foil here I come!

These threads don't come along often enough!

Why didn't this thread happen a few months ago? I still haven't recovered from going to a camera shop for my photo. They presented me with ...... a photo of my mother. I'm sure it is .... couldn't possibly be me.

I practised like mad for my new driving licence and passport photo....

neutral, non smiling, non bitchface

one eyebrow raised (slightly), enough to make myself look intriguing and not Kerrrr-azzzzy. Eyes wide, but not like you have just been tazered. Also smiley eyes...hard if you are not allowed to smile, but possible...again practise!!

I never wear foundation or powder either normally, but used plenty of tinted moisturiser and did the tissue press before I sat down to remove all shine.

Plenty of make up but subtle colours,....remember the driving license one is converted to black and white and very small, so detail is your friend.

I had a haircut, blowdry and highlights the day before

Learn how to use the timer on your camera and perch on a kitchen stool and take selfies and review! It's well worth it, this picture will torment you for the next ten years otherwise.

The only thing I think is that my face is a bit round fat but that fills out the wrinkles. so I let it past. 3)

I'm considering plastic surgery for my next passport, i have the very attractive serial killer look on my current one

In my 47 years on the planet I have had one photo taken of me that I like, and that was about 25 years ago when I wasn't battling with wrinkles and world-weariness showing in my face.

My graduation photos had to get redone as even my own mother said they were "hmmm, not the best" and the less said about my wedding photos the better. I look in amazement at everyone on Facebook who changes their profile photo every two days and think how is it even possible to have so many flattering photos of yourself? I truly am the world's least photogenic person.

I need to renew my passport next year and am reading all these tips with interest as I've been using a passport photo for the last nine years that makes me look like I've just been dug up.

I have a perfect picture of DD but you can't see her ears - I don't know if it would be acceptable or not (her ears aren't often visible)

So frustrating

I've just sent off my photos for my new passport and I'm actually hoping they get sent back as unacceptable. Otherwise I'm going to spend the next ten years hoping nobody ever asks to look at my passport. Will try paspic.com if they do come back, sounds like a much better idea.

I need more details. What were the dimensions of the cardboard?

I took my last one myself using my iphone! I could have as many attempts as I liked.

it took a lot of goes and I settled for one that made me look the least like Myra Hindley.

I wear all the makeup, make sure my hair is delightfully zhujzed up, pout ever so slightly with the wispiest wisp of a smile so your mouth isn't turned downwards. Smeyse, that's 'smile with your eyes' for the uninitiated, or open your eyes slightly wider than they'd normally be so you look like a wide eyed starlet.

But OP I bow down to your ingenuity in bringing a light reflecting tin foil board with you. That's genius!

Smeyse, that's 'smile with your eyes' for the uninitiated, or open your eyes slightly wider than they'd normally be so you look like a wide eyed starlet.

Or a goggle eyed serial killer.

I photoshopped mine